Living and Being 'Chinese': Geographic and Ethnic Diversity in China

FAIN: ES-50164-06

China Institute in America, Inc. (New York, NY 10065-7006)
Nancy Jervis (Project Director: March 2006 to September 2008)

A four-week summer institute for thirty elementary and secondary school teachers to explore ethnic and geographic diversity in China using "the home" as a rubric for examining varieties of everyday life through disciplines such as art, architecture, history, and anthropology.

The proposed 4-week NEH Summer Institute Living and Being 'Chinese": Geographic and Ethnic Diversity in China will use the concept of "the home" to investigate the issues of geographic and ethnic diversity in China throughout history and in contemporary times. Living and Being 'Chinese' will guide 30 participants through the doorsof a multitude of Chinese dwellings and communities- examining houses, families and patterns of life in multifarious geographic and ethnic contexts-to reveal the complexity of "living and being Chinese". By looking at the diverse regional and ethnic articulations of what it means to be 'Chinese', participants will learn to appreciate the heterogeneity of the world's most populous country.